PALESTINIAN prison escape hero Zakaria Zubeidi sent a message to Israel on Tuesday, explaining that its brutal occupation of his land left no option but resistance.

Born in the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank, Mr Zubeidi saw many of his family members shot dead by Israeli forces. He said that these experiences had pushed him to join the armed struggle for Palestinian liberation.

“What do you expect from a person whose father you starved by preventing him from practising his profession as a teacher, whose mother you killed in front of him – shot dead by a sniper – and killed his brother and his best friends, along with 370 sons and daughters of a refugee camp crowded into one square kilometre,” Mr Zubeidi said.